iPad Campaign Trail

Odd that this game came out now, but it's free so I thought I'd pick it up and give it a go. All in all not bad (worth the price, anyway). There is a lot that could be done with this formula and they really could have made this a deep game worth some money. Here's hoping that they add some stuff to it.

Anyway... here's the review I submitted to iTunes...

This game (though coming out a bit late) is a fun match three game that is certainly fun for the free price, but with a little more depth I'd have gladly paid for it.

First what you get for free... It's the match three mode but in this one you play against your Presidential opponent (sort of like Puzzle Quest). You take turns matching up voters and they give you popularity. Once you get about 50% you win the state. Match 4 in a row and you get another turn, combos also give you some extra votes. This is pretty fun and it adds a nice little bit of fun to the well known formula.

The graphics are okay (though a bit too cartoony for my taste) and you get to use the slide feature to move the voters.

What I would have paid for... There is no difference in the states. It would have been good to have them weighted so that some states are more important. Also, you could have certain voters that are worth more in certain states. The game shows voters as being different sexes and races, it would be easy to assign different types a "value" on some of them in different states (for example making women more valuable in some states, etc.)

I would also love to se a power meter used so that at some point you could unleash a "media blitz" that would knock down the opponent's popularity. And maybe use the differences in the candidates to give them a boost. For example an African American candidate might get more popularity for matching up like voters, or maybe they get more if they match up White voters (not even attempting to play a race card, just adding ideas to the game).

There are some Puzzle Quest type things that could happen in this game and I would gladly shell out some bucks to have a game that does this -- GLADLY! But for now this is a fun game, it's free, and it adds a nice competitive nature to the Match Three game. It's perfect for the price, so pick it up, and if you're like me you'll pay for the one that's even better.